Hi to all,
I'm a newer in 3d world.
I start with blender, now I switch to Silo for all modelling needs.
I need a 3d animation and rendering tool, because we want create a short cg movie, so, I download Maya, softimage, 3dsmax and then houdini. the first three has many tutorials (but 3dsm look to me really unproductive…), books and online guide (ok, not softimgae, but DT Softimage guide is pretty good), but I don't find so much support for houdini. the only book i find is based on houdini 8 (magic of houdini) and no a DVD or course with a interest subject (like gnomon Vitaly Bulgav DVD for softimage). Any serious dvd course like this:
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/544/Character-Design-and-Modeling-for-Next-Gen-Games [thegnomonworkshop.com]
Gnomon has two dvd houdini based, but the impression is houdini used only for special effect (fluid and particle system) and not for modelling and animation, only my impression?
In any case I donwnload houdini free trial (I agree with Sidefx politics and his PLE houdine version) and install it. First look is not so good:
Maya, silo, blender and especially softimage work smooth and fast on my hardware (a Dell 6400 mobile workstation, with a core 2 duo t9600, 6 giga and nvidia quadro 512 mb), Houdini no: many lag and not so fast as I expect (I imported a obj mesh, in Softimage wiewport 3d is really fast), there is some problem, or houdini apprentice is intentionally underpowered?
I try some houdini modelling tool, but I must say Silo look much more fast and efficient, but my interest for houdini is for rendering and animation.
Any tips or suggestion? And why prefer houdini to (i.e.) softimage?
Thanks in advance

P.S. Sorry for my poor english…

hi Jholen

i use softimage professionally and i chose it after many years of working with/trying different applications (Max, Maya, Cinema4D, …). It's a really great piece of software, very fast, very productive and has great scene/project management for large projects. I find it easy to learn and quite predictable. However every application has it's limits, mainly in flexibility and openness. That's the reason i always try to choose right program for the right task if i have the possibility.

I find houdini very advanced piece of software, very flexible and if you have deeper understanding of 3D and how it works, you can do with houdini almost anything without much effort. It's not so fast however as other softwares (especially softimage, which speed was recently highly improved).
As for modeling in Houdini there are many threads on houdini forums.
I personally don't model in Houdini because i simply import the model as obj, it makes no difference, it's simply faster for me that way. But there are many cases when modeling in Houdini is faster so i chose it then.
If you are advanced 3d user not afraid of solving challenges and you want total control of your work, then you should give Houdini a chance. But if you seek standard workflow, where you model/rig/animate/render something, pretty much in the standard way then softimage is worth a try

it's difficult to give you the objective overall image of the difference between any 3D applications and i am not trying to do it now.
At the end you still have to decide on your own.

Being this Houdini forum i am sorry if this post sounds pro-softimage, it's not meant to be pro-any software, you know how i love Houdini

cheers, Tomas

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=122&Itemid=306 [sidefx.com]

phrenzy84
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=122&Itemid=306 [sidefx.com]

Just quick note. This list miss two tutorials from 3D Buzz:

1. http://www.3dbuzz.com/xcart/product.php?productid=71&cat=11&page=1 [3dbuzz.com]
2. http://www.3dbuzz.com/xcart/product.php?productid=72&cat=11&page=1 [3dbuzz.com]

So if anyone from SFX reads this, please, talk to someone who can correct this.
Those tutorials are available from long time ago.

well i love Houdini but is trying out silo for the modeling task because i don't seems to be good to get whit the houdini modeling tools but that i properly just me

Don't forget: It's great fun.

because when your boss is behind and say.

why we don't change that? and this, and a little bit of that, and when you explain, that will take a week of work, it looks at you with the eyes, of “ some one will stay extra time” you think, Fiuf!!! i just move 1 or two sliders that i previously did, thinking he might want to change those.

Thanks very much to everyone.
I try now the apprentice free version, but I find it a bit slow in comparative to XSI. Apprentice is slow then usual commercial license?

Because Houdini is probably the only general purpose 3d application that is designed and done right. Sure everyone loves Houdini particles and effects, but you can do a lot of other stuff with it.

I like all other applications I use daily(Modo, Blender and once in a while I am forced to use Maya). They all provide a lot of good tools and options, but Houdini provides very different approach to solving production related problems.

Btw Blender is very very capable piece of software both for modelling and animating. I have done quite a bit of work in it. Considering that it is free and open source, really you cannot beat that.

I generally model in Modo, Wings or in Blender. All of these are pretty damn good packages for modelling.